North Korea’s Dark Digital Fingers: Suspicions Rise in Latest Crypto Heist

Tangled Web of Transactions

North Korean cyber operatives, previously implicated in a cryptocurrency exploit, are again under the scanner, this time tied to a major breach at the CoinEx exchange. This assessment is based on the analytical prowess of blockchain detective ZachXBT and further validated by CoinDesk.

In an alarming incident this past Tuesday, CoinEx was victimized to the tune of $27 million. But as information unraveled, that figure shot up, reflecting a loss of $54 million in tokens as the exchange disclosed details of the impacted wallets by Wednesday.

The assailants expertly maneuvered their way, extracting various cryptocurrencies including ether (ETH), XRP, tron’s TRX, MATIC, solana’s SOL, kadena’s KDA, and dagger’s XDAG. This feat was achieved by targeting a weak security point in the wallets managed by CoinEx. In its subsequent move to trace the criminals, CoinEx flagged over 10 “suspicious” addresses across multiple networks like Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum as the destinations of these stolen funds.

Linking to North Korea’s Lazarus Group

ZachXBT’s deep dive into these wallet addresses led to a startling revelation. Some of the transfers seemed to converge on wallets that had been associated with a recent $41 million exploit of the crypto betting domain, Stake. Notably, those particular wallets trace back to the notorious North Korean cyber gang, Lazarus, which has a history of preying on cryptocurrency establishments.

One of the wallet addresses had also reportedly been a beneficiary of the Stake assault just days prior before it began receiving the CoinEx loot.

However, amidst this turmoil, CoinEx provided some solace to its user base. On Wednesday, it clarified that the siphoned funds constituted only a minor fraction of their overall user assets. They reassured their clientele that the remainder of the assets housed in the exchange were untouched and secured.

For perspective, despite this setback, the Samoa-registered CoinEx recorded a commendable trading volume, with transactions exceeding $22 million across its vast 730 trading pairs in just the last day, as per available data.